Recently, semiconductor devices such as a transistor, an LSI, or an IC are used under a high-temperature environment, for example, in the vicinity of an engine, and an operating temperature of a high frequency IC tends to be increasingly high. Therefore, even though the semiconductor devices are exposed to the high-temperature environment, a high degree of reliability is required.
As a gold alloy wire for a bonding wire for connecting an electrode on an IC chip which is used under the high-temperature environment to an exterior lead part, a gold alloy wire for a bonding wire (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 06-112251 (“JP '251”)) having a component composition comprising at least one kind of Pd, Pt, Rh, Ir, Os, and Ru of 1000 ppm to 5% by mass in total, at least one kind of Ca, Be, Ge, Si, Fe, Y, and rare earth elements of 1 to 50 ppm in total, and the balance being Au and inevitable impurities has been known. The gold alloy wire for the bonding wire as described above contains a large amount of platinum group metals to improve bonding strength of a compression ball and an Al pad at a high temperature, and further contains Ca, Be, or the like to increase hardness and improve stability of a loop. Generally, in order to connect the electrode on the IC chip to the exterior lead part by using the gold alloy wire for the bonding wire, a method of bonding the gold alloy wire by an ultrasonic wave-combined thermal compression has been mainly used.